Unity.

July 6th, 2009

My 4th of July was hot, giddy, and yummy. There were some unexpected surprises and a few little bumps, but in the end, I think everyone was happy and relaxed. And that’s how holiday is meant to be spent, right?

Smile, smile, smile.

I always find it intriguing how holidays bring people together. Events like Independence Day are especially interesting to me.

My typically-empty neighborhood lake park area was transformed into a melting pot of friends and family, everyone joining together for a festival of music and laughter. Maybe I’m just cheesy (OK – I am), but it makes me spin when vast amounts of people unite in celebration. I didn’t even mind the plastic Orange County folk!

Just a tiny cluster of the large lake.

Anyhow, I’m just rambling. I’m off to go spend my last few days with my Quebecer (Quibecian? Je ne sais pas!) friend before she departs back to Canada. Don’t pass out in the summer heat!

Under: family, friends, holiday, home, photo, rambling — @ 2:45 am

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Walking to Serenity.

May 11th, 2009

How is it possible that it’s been twelve days since I last wrote? How did I already spend two weeks here in Orange County? I know I didn’t sleep through it, as I’m cursed with severe insomnia, but I can’t help but wonder where the time went…

It’s been hard. After living on my own in the rainy Bay Area, returning to my family’s house in the desert of southern California has not been an easy dance. There are many things I forgot about my childhood home – good and bad – and it’s been interesting rediscovering the emotions that my family brings out.

The number one thing that has helped me most with my move has been hiking. I live on the edge of Orange County, literally right next to an 8000 acre protected wilderness park and bird sanctuary. My family is blessed with access to a trail that runs through the preserved land – a trail that I believe eventually leads to Laguna Beach.

Anyway, I’ve become addicted to the hike. The land that surrounds me when I get deep into the hike is mesmerizing. Despite the rollings hills being dry as a desert, they are not at all lacking absolute beauty. I’m able to finally find peace on these walks.

I’m not the only one who enjoys the trail, my Belle baby was in absolute heaven the two different times I brought her along.

Anyway, now that I’ve fully nested into my new (and old) home, I can FINALLY get back to my full time favorite pass time and job: writing! I’m working on a revision for FALLING INTO YESTERDAY and I’m ridiculously excited for the new content and plot twists I’ll be adding. I can’t wait to share the updated manuscript with a few of my readers.

Have a great week!

Under: gratitude, happiness, hiking, life, photo, rambling — @ 1:10 pm

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A Bit of a Ramble.

April 20th, 2009

Have I mentioned that Hannah is amazing? Because she totally is. Not only did Hannah help me get my layout back up on my Wordpress, BUT she also explained what she did in such a simple, beautiful manner that I think I’ll be able to fix whatever glitch I make next time around. Hopefully, at least.

Anyhow, having that terrible generic Wordpress page up for a few days inspired me to make a new layout! About time, right? I’m actually really proud of it. It features a photo I captured last Wednesday in Colorado Springs. And, to add an even greater personal touch, the header font is my handwriting!

About a month ago I decided to make a few personal fonts for the copies of A Fear of Tears I give out to friends. The novel features quite a bit of Post-It notes, so I figured it’d be fun to make each character’s font unique. ANYWAY, I wound up using Hayden’s (or, er, my) font for the new site header! It makes me giggle, because I’m a bit of a nerd.

But yes, I only have FireFox installed on my laptop, so I’m not sure what the layout looks like in other browsers. Let me know if there’s anything funny going on. I know the header is a bit large/long, but whatever. I like it.

In other news, I’ve returned to Berkeley. My departure from Colorado was rather epic, as an inane blizzard made the I-25 icy and nasty and scary and slippery and dangerous to drive on. Needless to say, the trip up to Denver was a bit nerve racking, but Fayie is amazing and still managed to get me to the airport with an hour to spare.

Somewhere in between Colorado Springs & Denver.

California is currently having a rather ridiculous heat wave (97F in Orange County/86F in Berkeley), so my body is in a bit of a temperature shock. If anything though, the physical discomfort is keeping me from noticing how much I miss Fayie, all of my other friends, and Colorado in general. The ten days passed by FAR too quickly.

To add to my mental/physical/everything craziness, I move out of my Northern CA studio and back down to my family’s house in Orange County this weekend. I have a lot of mixed (mostly negative) feelings about it, but I’m trying to stay positive. It is what it is and I’m going to make the best of it.

The pros of living back at home in Southern CA:

I get to be with my babies Belle & Leo 24/7!
Being able to drive my amazing Mini Cooper again! I MISS driving!
Being with my family, obviously.
Being near the few friends I have down there.
Having my own bedroom and bathroom – not having to share a studio.
Being able to save money in preparation to move to Colorado in the next year.
Living in a nice house with a pool/spa & outdoor fireplace.
Getting to cook is a wonderfully large kitchen again and prepare meals/baked good for more mouths then my own. I HATE cooking single serving meals. xD

I’m not going to list the cons of the OC, but focus on the pros. And the pros really are great! So it’s okay! My time in Berkeley has been absolutely incredible, but the moment has come for this chapter to close.

Anyhow. I really need to begin packing up my studio. Fun stuff!

Under: Colorado, friendship, life, photo, rambling — @ 5:14 pm

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